Church of St. Nicholas, Reutlingen, Church building in Reutlingen, Germany

St. Nicholas Church is a stone church on Nikolaiplatz/Wilhelmstraße in Reutlingen. Its grey ashlar front has a tall pointed-arch tracery window flanked by two smaller pointed-arch windows, with a carved pointed-arch entrance and two carved shields below; broad steps lead up to the dark double door. The left side wall is pale plaster with narrow pointed-arch windows.

St. Nicholas Church was built in 1358 as a thank-offering and act of atonement after the plague of 1348, probably by the master builder Peter von Reutlingen. The Reutlingen guilds had the chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas. The town fire of 1726 destroyed four fifths of the centre but left the church almost undamaged apart from roof and bell frame; it then served as the main church until St. Mary's was rebuilt. A bomb raid in early 1945 burned it out, and it was rebuilt and back in use by October 1950.

The chapel was consecrated to Saint Nicholas by Reutlingen's guilds; he is the patron of sailors and travellers and protector of poor strangers. A 1914 sculpture of Nicholas stands on the exterior choir wall. Since 1998 the church has hosted the Reutlinger Vesperkirche each January and February, serving meals to over 300 people daily for five weeks.

The church stands on Nikolaiplatz at Wilhelmstraße, right by the pedestrian zone in the old town, so it is passed on foot rather than reached by car. The entrance is up broad stone steps through the west portal. Services and the monthly ecumenical service for the deaf still take place, so step inside between them.

What sets this church apart is its role as a simultaneum, where Protestant and Catholic communities used the same worship space at different times. This arrangement was an unusual and practical solution to religious tensions in the 17th century.